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First Complaint

In 2005, the Supreme Judicial Court abolished the fresh complaint doctrine in sexual assault cases and replaced it with the first complaint doctrine in Commonwealth v. King. Since then, the courts have struggled with the application of this doctrine to various factual circumstances that were not contemplated when the SJC announced this bright-line evidentiary rule. In this thirty minute webinar, Carrie Newton from MDAA’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit will cover the do’s and do not’s of offering a first complaint witness in sexual assault cases. This will include a summary of all relevant case law beginning with Commonwealth v. King and ending with the most recent decision of Commonwealth v. Aviles in December 2011.